Indeed, standard federation protocol. Give warnings till shields are at 30%. Once message from scotty arrives that she cannot hold, return fire. Win but only by a small margin, such that you get to spend months doing R&D while the ship is being repaired.

There were Defiant and Intrepid class ships in that Federation fleet. That means they were built post-Borg. Thanks to the Borg, even the Federation learned that sometimes dialogue just isn't an option.

FireAge wrote:Indeed, standard federation protocol. Give warnings till shields are at 30%. Once message from scotty arrives that she cannot hold, return fire. Win but only by a small margin, such that you get to spend months doing R&D while the ship is being repaired.

Good point! Cunning lazy buggars weren't they....... Imagine how many MC's Spock won at Poker while the engineers were doing repairs. That deadpan face of his must have won him millions!